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| Voting |
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Balloting |
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Voter drop-off,roll-off, orundervoting occurs when a voter selects fewer options in a contest than the maximum number allowed or makes no selection at all for a particular election.[1] Undervotes may be intentional or unintentional.[2]
Intentional undervotes arise from deliberateabstention. An individual may participate in the election but decline to support any candidate as a form ofprotest, or may simply choose not to vote for lower offices because they lack information or interest indownballot races.[2] For example, a voter might select a presidential candidate but abstain from a concurrent county commissioner election.[3]
Unintentional undervotes may result from poorballot design or voter misunderstanding. For instance, a voter mistakenly marking a preference ballot by selecting the same candidate for multiple positions could lead to an undervote.[4][2]
Undervotes, together withovervotes (where a voter selects more options than are allowed), are collectively referred to asresidual votes. These are used in academic studies to assess the accuracy and reliability of voting systems in capturing voter intent.[4]
